# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070 "2016-12-07T00:25:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 712
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14225 "2017-12-12T14:54:41Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > I’m gonna be a really kooky way-out-pie-in-the-sky optimist type and call it right here: the [ball](https://www.voanews.com/a/three-women-renew-sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-trump/4159120.html)that’ll really start to get shit rolling against преЦАРдент Trump. > > With all his teflon, with all his hardcore 27%, (and their attendant “feminazi” backlash, from this, on Breitbart, etc.), with all the locked-in GOP congress and senate, with all the ever-increasing preponderance of (often far-) right media…with all this revolting fucking shit, I’m gonna stubbornly see the slight give in the stranglehold here, and it’s one that ain’t gonna cinch up again. > > Obviously there’ll be more women to come forward than just these initial three (Holvey, Crooks, Leeds). The more who come out, the more I can’t see how even President Sadguts’s most hardcore women voters won’t start to realise ok, enough is enough - this shit is just getting crazy-town. > 🙂 > > Imma the Little Train That Could on this one. I’d like to agree with you, but I’m afraid I’m less optimistic. Trump’s approval rating could fall all the way to 0%, and he won’t be impeached by the current Congress. As long as he signs the bills that get to his desk, the Republicans have no incentive to give him the boot. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14226 "2017-12-12T15:15:56Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > I’m gonna be a really kooky way-out-pie-in-the-sky optimist type and call it right here: the [ball](https://www.voanews.com/a/three-women-renew-sexual-misconduct-allegations-against-trump/4159120.html)that’ll really start to get shit rolling against преЦАРдент Trump. > > With all his teflon, with all his hardcore 27%, (and their attendant “feminazi” backlash, from this, on Breitbart, etc.), with all the locked-in GOP congress and senate, with all the ever-increasing preponderance of (often far-) right media…with all this revolting fucking shit, I’m gonna stubbornly see the slight give in the stranglehold here, and it’s one that ain’t gonna cinch up again. > > Obviously there’ll be more women to come forward than just these initial three (Holvey, Crooks, Leeds). The more who come out, the more I can’t see how even President Sadguts’s most hardcore women voters won’t start to realise ok, enough is enough - this shit is just getting crazy-town. > 🙂 > > Imma the Little Train That Could on this one. Alabama is on the cusp of electing a gigantic POS who was banned from a mall for chasing teen girls. Have you ever known anyone banned from a fucking mall??? But, R’s don’t give a fuck. They won’t give a fuck about anything Grab’em by the Pussy has done. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14227 "2017-12-12T15:30:16Z")
Well it is Alabama. The phonebook has 3 last names in it, and they are blurred. Even the marriage ceremony has additional options. Do you take this sister/aunt/cousin to be your lawful wife? ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14228 "2017-12-12T15:39:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Gonna have to start carrying around a bankroll, so as to give my tips in cash instead of adding them to my debit card, if this becomes reality. > > Curious to know if restaurateurs who exploit this newly-granted power will extrapolate it into the right to designate some of their current minimum-wage earners as tipped employees. The idea being that it could reduce the effective size of the paychecks they are obligated to cut to dishwashers and bus-persons. As a long time back of house employee, I was in favor of tip pooling. Servers should be too. When a server fucked up an order, and told me that he needed it recooked “on the fly” I really didn’t care all that much, it’s not like it was my tip. The server is the one who takes the reward or the punishment for what is really 90% other people’s work. If employers are taking a cut, that’s not really all that cool, but redistributing to the employees who actually make the experience for the guest makes more sense to me. If this does go through and become common, then if you give the server a cash tip for them to keep, then they get their above MW pay, plus their part of the tip pool, plus the cash tips that you gave them and they did not share with the other employees. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14229 "2017-12-12T16:17:35Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > The country as we know it may well shatter, but with the size and diversity of opinion in this country, I absolutely cannot see the entire country continue to be united under a dictatorial president. The concept that the entire military and power structure will be enough behind anyone, least of all Trump, to take over the entire fifty states and hold them is, to me, ludicrous. The country will break apart, cease to exist as we know it, long before anything like that happens. > > The core in name only United States and a bunch of independent states (or maybe one independent state) to the west, sure. The US as it exists now, except with a dictator? Not a chance. No two examples of authoritarian states are the same. Fascism in America wouldn’t necessarily go to the same degree as what existed in Nazi Germany, and when I or others point out the parallels between now and late 1920s Germany, I don’t mean to suggest that we’d end up with Jews being rounded up and sent to concentration camps in Nevada. And you’re probably right: it could well result in a crack-up of American states and local municipalities without the entire landmass coming under direct control. But let’s just say that if it got that far, it wouldn’t be good, whatever form it might take. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14230 "2017-12-12T16:27:14Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Well it is Alabama. The phonebook has 3 last names in it, and they are blurred. > Even the marriage ceremony has additional options. Do you take this sister/aunt/cousin to be your lawful wife? Side note: NPR this morning had a long and thoughtful conversation with an Alabama voter who brought up something that I don’t think had been mentioned before: this race is really all about abortion. He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14231 "2017-12-12T16:31:42Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > No, the threat of a canceled, postponed, or otherwise manipulated election is actually more real now. I’m not saying it’s going to happen, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if it gets some discussion in the right wing media. Talking about postponing an election, taking steps to actually do it, and then actually pulling it off - those are different things, but the country’s government is now controlled at the federal and state level by a party that is increasingly of an authoritarian bent, with with reasons that are rational if you are looking at it from their vantage point. They know their policies favor the extremely rich over everyone else, so when you are the party of oligarchs, democracy is your enemy. It’s naive to believe that the United States cannot succumb to these antidemocratic forces. While I absolutely, one hundred percent believe the USA is vulnerable to such things just as anyone is, the fact that the states hold the elections whether the feds like it or not makes it quite unlikely such a thing will happen. I could totally see Trump convincing his sycophants to do this, but convincing 50 state governments all at the same time? Because you have to convince all of them (or, to do it permanently through a Constitutional amendment, 38 of them.) Not super likely - if you try to do it one state at a time, the first state is conceding its power over the feds to every subsequent state that doesn’t get on board. In this regard the founding fathers were very clever. I would further say that I do not think for an instant Donald Trump gives a shit about democracy, and he would cancel elections in an instant if he thought it to his advantage - but to do so would be very, very hard, and would require more intelligence and foresight than he is capable of. It is of course sad that we’re even at the point that if a President were to try this he WOULDN’T be impeached in a day. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14232 "2017-12-12T16:31:53Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > …He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Wouldn’t it be nice if guys like this would just, like, NOT HAVE ANY ABORTIONS THEMSELVES and leave the rest of us the fuck alone? ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14233 "2017-12-12T16:35:40Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I’d like to agree with you, but I’m afraid I’m less optimistic. Trump’s approval rating could fall all the way to 0%, and he won’t be impeached by the current Congress. As long as he signs the bills that get to his desk, the Republicans have no incentive to give him the boot. I don’t think that’s what’s stopping them; Pence can sign them just as easily. I think ditching Trump when the base (and I do mean base) are still drooling over him would cause them to lose the next election. Can’t have that, can we? ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14234 "2017-12-12T16:58:18Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Side note: NPR this morning had a long and thoughtful conversation with an Alabama voter who brought up something that I don’t think had been mentioned before: this race is really all about abortion. He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. I think I heard the same piece, if you’re referring to the guy who said his daddy told him never to say who you’re voting for— while making it glaringly clear that despite the coyness and the pretense of aggrieved soul-searching, he was absolutely going to vote for Roy Moore, because there is no more important issue in the world than abortion, and even a bobby-soxer-fondling Pharisee is better than a baby-murdering Democrat. I’m not sure I’d call him “thoughtful,” but being that he only has one goal, his position is logically sound, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14235 "2017-12-12T17:19:47Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Well it is Alabama. The phonebook has 3 last names in it, and they are blurred. > Even the marriage ceremony has additional options. Do you take this sister/aunt/cousin to be your lawful wife? Look closer. Those aren’t separate options. They are all the same person! ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14236 "2017-12-12T17:27:54Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Side note: NPR this morning had a long and thoughtful conversation with an Alabama voter who brought up something that I don’t think had been mentioned before: this race is really all about abortion. He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. Abortion has been discussed quite frequently as the ‘single issue’ that many Republican voters use to justify their support for morally bankrupt and incompetent politicians like Trump and Moore. Many conservatives will just never vote for a pro-choice candidate, no matter what. Never mind foreign policy, or climate change, or education, or any number of other issues that some of these voters may take more moderate stances on. They will always pick the pro-life candidate over the pro-choice one. Although, it will be interesting to see how tightly they cling to that conviction when the Republicans inevitably come after their Social Security and Medicare. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14237 "2017-12-12T17:31:58Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Well it is Alabama. The phonebook has 3 last names in it, and they are blurred. > Even the marriage ceremony has additional options. Do you take this sister/aunt/cousin to be your lawful wife? > [@D\_Odds](#): > > Look closer. Those aren’t separate options. They are all the same person! “If your family tree does not fork, you might be a redneck.”-Jeff Foxworthy ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14238 "2017-12-12T17:36:27Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > The concept that the entire military and power structure will be enough behind anyone, least of all Trump, to take over the entire fifty states and hold them is, to me, ludicrous. True. The notation that the military is gung ho for Trump is incorrect. Although there is support for Trump among the rank and file, the officers have basically the same dislike for Trump exhibited among the rest of the US population. > **[Military Times Poll: What you really think about Trump](https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/10/23/military-times-poll-what-you-really-think-about-trump/)** > > The latest Military Times poll shows more active-duty troops like Trump than dislike him, but divisions remain within the ranks. We are more likely to have civil war or a military coup than we are to have a slide into dictatorship. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14239 "2017-12-12T17:52:29Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Side note: NPR this morning had a long and thoughtful conversation with an Alabama voter who brought up something that I don’t think had been mentioned before: this race is really all about abortion. He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. That’s an excuse to vote for the pedophile, or at least to not vote against him. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14240 "2017-12-12T18:08:10Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Abortion has been discussed quite frequently as the ‘single issue’ that many Republican voters use to justify their support for morally bankrupt and incompetent politicians like Trump and Moore. Many conservatives will just never vote for a pro-choice candidate, no matter what. Never mind foreign policy, or climate change, or education, or any number of other issues that some of these voters may take more moderate stances on. They will always pick the pro-life candidate over the pro-choice one. > > Although, it will be interesting to see how tightly they cling to that conviction when the Republicans inevitably come after their Social Security and Medicare. And, somewhat amusingly, the are lead to vote for these candidates who play lip service to pro-life on the campaign rail, but do nothing about it when in office. Not only would it be difficult to really restrict abortion the way they want it, but if that were to happen, they would no longer have the wedge issue that gets them votes. Conservative politicians have no interest in passing real pro-life legislation, they would become obsolete if they did. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14241 "2017-12-12T18:43:36Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Side note: NPR this morning had a long and thoughtful conversation with an Alabama voter who brought up something that I don’t think had been mentioned before: this race is really all about abortion. He hates his choices but can’t bring himself to vote for a pro-choice candidate. And this just demonstrates that he is pro-birth. Not pro-life. ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14242 "2017-12-12T18:53:02Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > And this just demonstrates that he is pro-birth. Not pro-life. Exactly. Once those babies are born, the heck with them. Evidence: let CHIP expire. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14243 "2017-12-12T18:54:16Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Well it is Alabama. The phonebook has 3 last names in it, and they are blurred. > Even the marriage ceremony has additional options. Do you take this sister/aunt/cousin to be your lawful wife? > [@D\_Odds](#): > > Look closer. Those aren’t separate options. They are all the same person! > [@running\_coach](#): > > “If your family tree does not fork, you might be a redneck.”-Jeff Foxworthy The joke I heard: The guy says “I’d like you to meet my wife and my sister” and you look over and there’s one woman standing next to him. ---
**Author:** ![Chisquirrel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6bbea6/32.png) [@Chisquirrel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chisquirrel)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2017, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/14244 "2017-12-12T18:55:23Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > Wouldn’t it be nice if guys like this would just, like, NOT HAVE ANY ABORTIONS THEMSELVES and leave the rest of us the fuck alone? As we’ve seen in the past, there’s absolutely nothing stopping them from getting (or advocating their wife/girlfriend/mistress get) an abortion, even while crying MURDER! at the top of their lungs. Their reasons for abortion are totally legitimate - it’s those other people that shouldn’t be allowed to have one. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=711) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=713)